The football championship: Geelong v. South
When the unbeaten champions of 1886, the Geelong and South Melbourne Clubs, met on the South Melbourne cricket-ground, on Saturday, to play the match which by universal consent was named the test match for the premiership, the spectacle presented was one of the most extraordinary ever seen in connection with any athletic sport in Victoria. Before 1 o’clock nearly 10, 000 tickets had been sold at Messrs Boyle and Scott's and the ‘Melbourne Sports Depot’, and without this provision the struggle at the ground must have been something sensational. At 2 o’clock there was a procession of cabs, shrouded in dust, passing along Clarendon street, and the crush by rail caused for an hour a sustained jostle. Usually the players come out worst in a great football match; on Saturday the spectators did the fighting. It all culminated in a crowd of some 25 000 people, packed into a ground capable of holding about half the number. Only one ground in Victoria - the M.C.G enclosure - was worthy of such a match. Over £700 worth of tickets were sold.
At two points where an embankment had been formed the people stood up in wedge shape above the heads that surged beneath. The pavilion, scoring- box, every building inside the ground and outside it and the boat-houses by the lake were ridged with people. The rush for the roof of the pavilion was so great at one time that a collapse was feared and Sergeant Bailey was obliged to stop the climbing procession that toiled towards it by way of the scoring board. Here and there between the supports the roof bent inward with the weight and is no longer water-proof. The trees inside the ground swayed under their load of sightseers, but strangely enough the towering pines in the park outside in the dark foliage of which hundreds might have hidden and had a commanding view at the game were neglected. The police must have been early abroad to prevent these positions being stormed.
The playing space had been fenced off with pickets but the pressure from the mass behind was so great that just after the game started some 300ft of it fell inward and there was nothing but the half-dozen mounted troopers and the onlookers own spirit of fair play to prevent encroachment on the playing space. Hundreds of ladies in the reserve, who wore tufts of blue and white or scarlet and white ribbons, the colours of the contending clubs, hardly saw a player from start to finish of the game. South Melbourne had its finest team in the field. Geelong at the last moment, lost the services of one of its players (Groves) through a family affliction and James, a college boy took his place. Those who had sleeves wore a band of crape but most of the players had their arms bare. The physique of the teams was as different as their methods of training - the South Melbourne for the most part heavy and muscular, had confined themselves largely to running while the Geelong, men little and active and looking smaller still in their dull uniform, which at a distance is rather a grey than a blue and white, had given most attention to swimming exercise. Both claimed to be thoroughly fit for the contest
They drew up and cheered each other before the start but not so vigorously as the crowd cheered them both. Geelong won the toss, and with a strong breeze behind them kept the ball down at the lake side, a short proclaiming he first behind, kicked by Julien. The ground was in favour of a fast game, little whiffs of dust rising as the players turned sharply or fell. The South through the good play of Harper, Graves, and J. Minchin, got the ball once within range but were beaten off before they could score. Then Morrison and Boyd took it down the ground, the former playing neatly and almost without effort as compared with the vigour mostly wasted by his opponents. McLean drove the ball low between the posts but with a desperate effort one of the South Melbourne back players saved the goal by touching the ball. Elms played brilliantly in defence, and Hill and Harper also fought hard, but the Geelong bombardment became monotonous in its regularity, the ball going everywhere but between the posts.
Generally the character of the play had not reached a high standard. Each of the South Melbourne men seemed to think that the fate of the team rested upon his individual efforts, and they all clung to the ball until the Geelong men relieved them of the responsibility. The Geelong system was more perfect but their forward players were wasting golden moments in fruitless scoring of behinds. On both sides there was much fumbling, scrambling, and miscalculation. The strained intensity of both players and spectators was something exceptional. When the ball went between the legs of the troopers' horses the players followed and it was interesting to note how one fine grey charger accustomed to such crowds stood without flinching while the players were jostled against him. South Melbourne were weak in the centre. Here the Adelaide player Bushby, was opposed to Hickinbotham but the Geelong captain did as he pleased with his man, Bushby being powerless to check his brilliant play. No other two on the field played such a game as Kerley and his captain, but next to them, and well in advance of any others, was Elms, the local captain. When the teams changed ends, Geelong had scored 8 behinds and South Melbourne 1.
Everyone expected that the South Melbourne would more than make the game - even the wind was in their favour - and the disappointment was extreme when it became gradually manifest that the local men were being beaten absolutely from start to finish. The breeze made no difference to Geelong. Hickinbotham, Kerley, McLean and Boyd playing splendidly as ever kept the local backs almost constantly on the defence yet they could not score goals. It was not until they had put up 10 behinds that A. Boyd got the ball between the posts for the first goal. Instantly hundreds of handkerchiefs barred with blue and white fluttered round the ground and it was evident that not even two special trains could have carried all the supporters of Geelong who were present. The South Melbourne added something new to the history of tactics as connected with the game. One of them placed the ball, and went back for a run as though about to kick down the ground, when another player whose action had been unnoticed, stepped quickly forward and drove it off at right angles. As the Geelong players were just as likely to mark it as South Melbourne - more likely indeed as the game had already shown-the new device was poor. When the bell rang, for the short rest the score was - Geelong, 1 goal 12 behinds; South Melbourne, 3 behinds.
With the wind helping them Geelong, were still strangely unable to score Hill and Young made fine dashes to save the South goal but for the fact that nothing material was being scored the supporters of the home team had to thank the Geelong forwards for their poor kicking, rather than their own men for any merit in their defence. With the third quarter nearly complete, Geelong while having 14 behinds had as yet only single goal. It was an extraordinary result for such a game. From the start the Geelong had outplayed the Southern team at every point and under all conditions, yet a single chance goal scored by the latter would have made the game for all practical purposes even again It was a great relief to the Geelong supporters when their second goal was scored by P. McShane who, standing, right in goal got a mark from Foote, and easily punted the ball through. This player had already kicked 40 goals for his club during this season, and promised well for the half-hundred before the season closed. Determined play on the part of Minchin and Roy got the ball to the Geelong posts and the rally seemed to have closed without effect when the fourth behind was scored. From the kick off, however the South Melbourne came again in fine style, and Bushell getting it a bit to one side scored first goal amid great cheering and a waving of hats variously ornamented in scarlet and white. The favours ranged from the penny cardboard sold in the toyshops to a gaudy cockade of ribbons. Here and there the tricolor monotony of red, white and blue was broken by the yellow of Richmond, the red and black of Essendon or the dark blue of Carlton, the followers of these clubs have deserted them for the day in the face of a greater attraction. At the close of the third quarter the game stood Geelong: 2 goals 15 behinds, South Melbourne 1 goal 4 behinds.
Still, beaten as they had been at every point, South Melbourne could make the game even with a single goal. Those of their supporters who had heard of the inscription on the "Great Pink Pearl" allowed hope still to lighten their lives. But Geelong have always played splendidly in the last quarter, and this time was not to be the exception. O’Connor, McDonald, Harper, and Graves of South Melbourne in turn tried their best but their best was poor in effect as compared with the play of their opponents. The third goal for Geelong was got most cleverly. The ball fell close to where Elms was opposed by two Geelong men - P.McShane and Foote. The latter giving his whole attention to the South Melbourne captain, hustled him away by placing his arms on either side of him - yet without actually breaking the rule as regards holding - while McShane left to himself quickly picked up the ball and popped it over their heads between the posts. The suspense amongst the hundreds, who were quite unable to see the play when the cheers announced a goal was almost painful to witness. The question ‘What is it’ was being repented from hundreds of voices until they learned that Geelong, and not South Melbourne had scored. Hope died out now.
Towards the close of the game Elms and Foote were wrestling close to the boundary, until a member of the association stepped out from the crowd and separated them towards the finish the Geelong men played all round their opponents, McLean and Julien doing almost what they wished, while the middle distance marking of the forwards was something exceptionally good. It was only at intervals that a South Melbourne man seemed to get his hands on the ball. P. McShane, the Geelong goal kicker, again signalised himself by kicking fourth goal and the match ended in a decisive victory for Geelong by 4 goals and 19 behinds, against South Melbourne's 1 goal and 5 behinds.
For the winners Hickinbotham all through the game, Kerley in the first half, and Mclean in the second together with P.McShane, Boyd, Bailey, Morrison and Julien played perhaps the best game for their side. Had but half the South Melbourne men played as well as Elms the result would have been different. Those who gave him most assistance were Hill, Harper, O’Connor, McDonald, Young, Purdy, M. Minchin and Docherty. The play was fair and manly all through and the central umpire (Shaw) had very little trouble.
Footnotes
Title: The Football Championship: Geelong v. South Melbourne. Author: Argus Staff Writer Publisher: The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956) Date: 6 September, 1886, p.10 (Article) Web: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11571840
Comments
Andrew Robinson 29 August 2012
This match smashed all previous attendance records for a football match in Australia. Probably the previous highest figure was the South Melbourne - Essendon clash of 1885 that attracted 18,000. The attendance was reported as up to 30,000 in other contemporary sources. The Age observed: "the crowd of visitors certainly being by far the largest ever seen on any football field of the metropolis. The attendance numbered about 28,000..."
The teams that took to the field were: Geelong - Hickinbotham (captain), Talbot (vice-captain), A. Boyd, S. Boyd, Bailey, Douglass, W. Foote, Furnell, Galbraith, James, Julien, Kearney, Kerley, McLean, J. McShane, P. McShane, Morrison, Mullen, Robertson, Steedman. South Melbourne - Elms (Captain), Bodycomb, Burns, Bushby, Bushell, Dickeson, Docherty, Graves, Harper, Hill, McDonald, McKay, J. Minchin, M. Minchin, O'Connor, Purdy, Roy, H. Smith, Smith, J. Young. Central umpire - J. Shaw
Pete McLean 30 August 2012
Two weeks before this match on August 21 1886, Carlton played South Melbourne on the same ground and the crowd was estimated by Monday's Argus to be between 20,000 to 25,000 "the latter probably was more correct than the former."
Andrew Robinson 30 August 2012
Pete, thanks for that. You're right, I missed that one. In relation to the South Melbourne - Geelong game, a Wikipedia article gives a very precise crowd figure of 34,121, with gate takings of ₤747/7/-. (Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Australian_rules_football_in_Victoria_%281859%E2%80%931900%29#The_game_of_the_century).
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